08 January, 2016

Switching barriers tend to serve as constraints that keep customers in relationships with firms because they however firms can engage in activities that encourage customers to remain in the relationship because they creating relationship bonds.

Leonard Berry & A.Parasuraman have developed a framework for understanding the types of retention strategies that focus on developing bonds with customers.

The customer is tied to the firm primarily through financial incentives lower prices for greater volume purchases or lower prices for customers who have been with the firm a long time.

Many travelers belong to several frequent flyer programs and do not hesitate to trade off among them.Although price and other financial incentives are important to customers,they are generally not difficult for competitions to imitate because the primary element of the marketing mix being manipulated is price.

The firm through more than financial incentives.Although price is still assumed to be important,strategies seek to build long term relationships through social and interpersonal as well as financial bonds.Customers are viewed as clients not nameless faces,and become individuals whose needs and wants the firm seeks to understand.

Level 3 strategies involves more than social ties and financial incentives,although there are common elements of level 1 and 2 strategies encompassed within a customization strategy and vice versa.Two commonly used terms fit within the customization bonds approach mass customization and customer intimacy.

Level 4 strategies are the most difficult to imitate,they involve structural as well as financial,social and customization bonds between the customer and the firm.Structural bonds are created by proving services to the client that are frequently designed right into the service delivery system for that client .